It was a quiet ride in the back of the van. Too quiet.
I hoped dearly she would be more talkative during dinner or it would end up being incredibly awkward but maybe she was just respecting how tired I was. The entire van smelled thickly of her perfume. It was intoxicating but I had a feeling it effected my vocal cords and thought process negatively.
"Here." She said, handing me a pair of sunglasses.
Sunglasses in the darkness of the night. We had to try everything we could to not draw attention to ourselves but this rarely worked. Our fans knew us so well that they could tell who we were by our height and body structure, but I put them on anyway and pulled my hood over my head grinning.
"Yo!" I stuck my lips out and tilted my head in my best gangster impression, folding my arms over my body.
Tiffany looked at me inquisitively before shoving my shoulder.
"Dork."
"What?" I asked, deflating slightly. "My feelings, they hurt."
"You should feel honored. There is no one else in this world that will ever contest you for the world's biggest dork." Tiffany smiled as she put on her sunglasses.
"You say 'dork' like it's a bad thing." I said, looking out the window.
"In your case..." She said as she put her chin on my shoulder. "...it's definitely not a bad thing."
I smiled hugely as we parked. The driver pulled us up to a little restaurant close to the dorm that Tiffany liked. It served both American and Korean food so it suited us well. We ordered and got a booth without incident. Our small security consisted of one bodyguard and our driver and they sat at a table separate from us, but close enough to handle anything if it happened. It was kind of dead inside the restaurant and we were seated next to a window together and given menus.
To my dismay, the low light and soft music made this feel like a real date. It set my nerves on edge.
"I'm so hungry!" Tiffany said after we ordered.
"I'm so tired." I responded, taking my hood down and leaning against the booth.
"Poor thing." She smiled. "Eating is important, though. I'm glad I made you do this."
"Thank you for taking care of me." I said under my breath, examining maybe too closely, the grains of wood in the table.
She nodded politely to the waitress as she set our drinks down. I noticed that even though we had an entire booth to ourselves, we were still sitting so close to one another. My mood was picking up rapidly.
"So... what do you think?" She asked, sipping from her tea.
"About?"
"The Boys." She looked at me.
"I... don't know." I said looking dissatisfied.
"You know, whenever you don't like a song it ends up being a hit." She chuckled.
I nodded. "You're right, so we'll probably break records and be a hit once more." I said, unconvincingly.
There was a pause.
"You've been different lately." Tiffany said in an undertone.
I looked at her. The waitress returned with our food and I waited for her to take her leave before I answered.
"How so?" I asked, taking a bite.
"Just... less animated I guess. Everyone notices it; we're all kind of worried."
